Yorkshire handler Ann Duffield’s pride as top trainer Nicky Henderson acknowledges her team’s work with Cheltenham Mares’ Hurdle winner Marie’s Rock

The seven-year-old was an eyecatching winner of the Grade One Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle on the opening day of the National Hunt Festival for ecstatic members of a Middleham Park Racing syndicate.

And, while the horse is trained by Nicky Henderson who was recording his 72nd Festival success, he was quick to praise the recuperative powers of Duffield’s stables at Constable Burton near Leyburn.

“She was nearly favourite for the mares’ novice the year before last (2020) but she went wrong a week before, which was heartbreaking,” recalled Henderson after Nico de Boinville rode Marie’s Rock to victory last Tuesday.

“We got her back last year and she went AWOL, I couldn’t find her at all. She had a summer up with Ann Duffield and she was a different girl again.”

Today Duffield – whose husband George is a former St Leger-winning jockey – spoke of her own pride at the horse’s success as she looks to diversify her training operation.

She now has a licence to train just 30 horses so she, and her team, can devote more time to the pre-training of racehorses or the rehabilitation from injury. Former jockeys Phil Makin and Sammy Jo Bell also lease a barn at the Duffield stables as their own training operation takes off.

Duffield says she has always enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Middleham Park Racing, based at Barton-on-Humber, and friendship with the aforementioned Henderson.

She said Marie’s Rock was one of 10 Middleham Park houses that spent part of last summer at Constable Burton recuperating in the fresh air before building up their fitness on an equine water exerciser.

“I’m delighted. Absolutely delighted,” Duffield told The Yorkshire Post. “I thought Nicky (Henderson) was so lovely with his words after the race. He is a big trainer, and often the syndicates don’t get the attention that their members deserve, but he was clearly delighted for the whole team.

“It was so lovely to see Marie’s Rock win and brilliant for the team here. It’s such a pleasure to have horses like Marie’s Rock to look after and then follow their progress.

“We have all the fun of working them and preparing them and then watching someone else have all the aggro – it’s nice to see when it comes off like this. I enjoy preparing racehorses – I don’t care if they are for me or not.”

She attributed the return to form of Marie’s Rock to “a change of scenery, some nice Yorkshire air as Nicky calls and the water treadmill that enabled the mare to regain her core fitness”.

Meanwhile, the Grade One Irish EBF Mares Champion Hurdle could be the horse’s next assignment.

“I think while we have got her in this kind of form if we are able to I’d like to try and go again with her,” said Tom Palin, bloodstock and National Hunt manager for Middleham Park Racing.

“I’m aware there’s a Grade One over two and a half miles at Punchestown in about a month’s time for mares only. That is probably the logical next step to keep her against her own sex.

“She’s beaten all the mares and I imagine it will be similar horses turning up if we did think about going there.”

One thing that is unlikely to be talked about for a while is retirement now that Marie’s Rock is flourishing as a racehorse.

“We’ve not spoken about retirement. She’s a racehorse first and foremost. We want to go racing for as long as we can with her. Breeding is not something we necessarily get involved in. We’d be ending up selling her,” added Palin.

“As long as she is racing well and being competitive, long may that continue. There are absolutely no plans to retire her.”

Meanwhile, Lucinda Russell is mulling over options for stable stars Ahoy Senor and Corach Rambler after their Cheltenham exploits, although she admitted both could be saved for next season.

Ahoy Senor chased home L’Homme Presse in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, while Corach Rambler tasted success with a storming late run under Derek Fox in the Ultima Handicap Chase.

Russell said: “Both are fantastic. They have both come home sound and happy. It is just a delight to cap off a super week. We are just really pleased with both of them.

“I don’t know if either will run this season. We are not sure. Corach might have an entry in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown, and we will look at Ahoy Senor to see how well he is and whether or not he goes to Aintree, or even Punchestown, but I don’t know. At this stage, we will probably save him for next season.”